Love and joy as 3rd ID soldiers return home

Corey Dickstein/Savannah Morning News Army Sgt. Christopher Mullins clings onto his wife, Lauren, and children, 3-year-old Cain and 20-month-old Madison, in the moments after returning to Fort Stewart, Ga., from a nine-month deployment in Afghanistan Tuesday. Mullins was among about 200 soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment of the 3rd Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team to return home Tuesday morning. It was his third deployment.

Corey Dickstein/Savannah Morning News Army Spc. William Bocock, 25, is introduced to his 3-month-old daughter Chloefor the first time by his wife Fabiana Bocock Tuesday morning at Fort Stewart's Cottrell Field. Bocock was among about 200 soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment of the 3rd Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team to return Tuesday from a nine-month deployment in Afghanistan.

Anxiously awaiting the bus carrying her husband back to Fort Stewart Tuesday morning, Fabiana Bocock glanced down at the stroller bearing her 3-month-old daughter.

“She’s never met her daddy,” Bocock said. “She’s about to see him for the first time in her life, and he’s finally going to meet her.”

In late February, Army Spc. William Bocock was among the about 700 soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment of the 3rd Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team to leave the installation for a nine-month combat tour that focused on training Afghan National Security Forces. Tuesday morning, the 25-year-old soldier and about 200 others returned home.

Moments after locking eyes with his daughter, Chloe, for the first time and raising her up to his chest, William Bocock just smiled and shook his head as he pondered the words to express his emotions.

“It’s just like — wow,” he said. “It’s a whole ton of things. I can’t believe she’s mine.

“You spend so much time — especially since she’s been born — trying to focus (on the mission) just so you make it home to her. It’s finally happened.”

For Fabiana Bocock, her husband’s safe return means less time wondering about his safety. It also means a whole lot more help around the house.

“It’s been a long journey,” she said. “It wasn’t easy, especially having a baby all by myself; I’m just glad that today my time as a single parent is over.”

For more experienced soldiers, the shortened deployment length — instituted this year by the Army — meant a quicker return to their loved ones.

After enduring both a 15- and 12-month tour in Iraq in recent years, Sgt. Christopher Mullins said this rotation — his first to Afghanistan — felt relatively quick.

The most difficult part, he said, was leaving behind his wife Lauren and their children 3-year-old Cain and 20-month-old Madison.

“It’s tough to leave, you know, especially for a long period of time knowing I have both of them back home,” he said. “When I left (for training at Fort Irwin, Calif.), all I could think is how am I going to do this for nine months.”

Despite not having a mid-deployment rest and relaxation leave, the shorter deployment was easier on his wife.

“Having done the longer (deployments) before, this was a lot better,” Lauren Mullins said. “I was busier with the two kids obviously, but even with that, in the other ones he would have been coming home on leave about now and then turning around and heading right back out. This time he’s home for good.”

With their children in their arms, the Mullins’ embraced and kissed.

“This is pretty awesome,” Christopher Mullins said. “I haven’t seen the kids in — it feels like so long. I’m pretty ecstatic right now. This is really what it’s all about.”